My mother was in college, reading something aloud in a class, when much to her embarrassment she learned that she'd been pronouncing the word "mislead" incorrectly her entire life. She pronounced it "missled" (like "missle" with a "d" on the end).

That's quite a common mistake, I believe; so is pronouncing it "mizzled". I think the latter (with z sound) actually comes across as quite a good synonym for the "proper" word -- it has overtones of being confused and astray.

I noticed earlier in the thread that some-one said they pronounce Tuesday like the number, so "Toosday". I haven't heard this before so it surprised me a little. Is this common for others and if so, where is it pronounced this way? I would say "Tewsday" (like ewes or few), or if you have a very strong ocker accent you may say "Chewsday" (*shudders*).

My other question is over how people say the fraction 3/4. I always say three-quarters. I don't think I've ever heard anyone in Australia say anything other that "quarter" in reference to all n/4 fractions (happy to be corrected, could be regional). I think that I have seen one or two American posters write three-fourths. Is this common? Which would you say?

We always learned "Tewsday" for singing in some styles of music, but I would say "Toosday" most of the time.

The 3/4 thing depends on the context - I'd say "three quarters of a cup of flour" but "three fourths of the class." In the case of 1/4 I think I'd almost always say "a quarter." For time it's "a quarderda five"

Here in the Midwest, it seems everyone will 'warsh' their clothes. I say 'wash'.

I've gotten in the habit of saying 'Wed-nes-day' so I could help my kids and DH learn how to spell it.

When someone says 'let me ax you a question,' I usually respond with, 'You're going to hatchet me a question?'

I was confused by 'crick' at first but everyone up here says it. It was always 'creek' to me.

I used to say 'segue' by pronouncing it 'seeg' until my brother said it's pronounced 'segway'. How was I to know, I'd only seen it in books. Same with the word 'dearth'. I thought it was pronounced 'darth' but he informed me it's 'durth'. Whoops.

I say 'cumin' either 'kuh-min' or 'kyoo-min' and have been corrected both ways.

Bloo, are you in Ohio? My husband's Cincinnati born and raised family all said "warsh" and "crick".

My late godmother was born and bred in Canada and said the same, plus terlet, etc......

Okay, how do you say that it is 7:15 when asked the time? I will say quarter after 7. I didn't even think anything of it until a friend teased me and said she just stated it as 7:15.

I never say "quarter" when speaking about time. 7:15 is seven fifteen. 45 minutes is forty five minutes not three quarters of a hour, etc. For that matter 7:30 to me is seven thirty not "half past". And don't even get me started on "of" when used with time! I have no idea if "ten of seven" means 6:50 or 7:10 because I don't understand the grammatic of the usage of "of" in the phrase!

Thank you, although I'm sure I'll forget again, as like I said I don't understand how that grammar works at all.

I think I just vehemently dislike requiring a person to do math when telling them a time

"Quarter past" means they have take a moment and mentally figure out 25% of 60, saying "ten of" means they have to figure out what "of" means and then calculate (apparently) seven minus ten minutes. To me time is too important a thing (just think of all the threads about people being late, or early or taking too long, or shorting time, etc) to be futzing around with not being perfectly without a doubt clear.

Thank you, although I'm sure I'll forget again, as like I said I don't understand how that grammar works at all.

I think I just vehemently dislike requiring a person to do math when telling them a time

"Quarter past" means they have take a moment and mentally figure out 25% of 60, saying "ten of" means they have to figure out what "of" means and then calculate (apparently) seven minus ten minutes. To me time is too important a thing (just think of all the threads about people being late, or early or taking too long, or shorting time, etc) to be futzing around with not being perfectly without a doubt clear.

I don't do math when told time. I automatically know, regarding time, that quarter = 15, not quarter = 25% of 60.

Thank you, although I'm sure I'll forget again, as like I said I don't understand how that grammar works at all.

I think I just vehemently dislike requiring a person to do math when telling them a time

"Quarter past" means they have take a moment and mentally figure out 25% of 60, saying "ten of" means they have to figure out what "of" means and then calculate (apparently) seven minus ten minutes. To me time is too important a thing (just think of all the threads about people being late, or early or taking too long, or shorting time, etc) to be futzing around with not being perfectly without a doubt clear.

I don't do math when told time. I automatically know, regarding time, that quarter = 15, not quarter = 25% of 60.

Thank you, although I'm sure I'll forget again, as like I said I don't understand how that grammar works at all.

I think I just vehemently dislike requiring a person to do math when telling them a time

"Quarter past" means they have take a moment and mentally figure out 25% of 60, saying "ten of" means they have to figure out what "of" means and then calculate (apparently) seven minus ten minutes. To me time is too important a thing (just think of all the threads about people being late, or early or taking too long, or shorting time, etc) to be futzing around with not being perfectly without a doubt clear.

I don't do math when told time. I automatically know, regarding time, that quarter = 15, not quarter = 25% of 60.

But just because you know it, doesn't mean the person you are saying it to thinks that way. If saying "quarter" isn't the norm for them (and I'm wondering with digital clocks becoming so much more standard then analogs if this is the case for many people) then they have to take that extra second to think "quarter, in relation to time, equals 15."

I admit for me, by now its not even a full second of thought, but its definitely a mental conversion for me.